Amanda Devlin

The city has been awarded just under £500,000 of additional government funding to tackle potholes.

Milton Keynes Council has successfully bid for £471,427 from Department of Transport, which will used to repair existing potholes permanently and prevent others forming.

More than three million potholes are to be filled as part of the biggest investment in roads since the 1970s as councils across England are given £168 million to fix their roads.

“I am delighted that we have managed to secure extra funding to target potholes which are a constant nuisance to our road users,” said Councillor Mick Legg, cabinet member for highways.

“I hope that this repair project along with the other extensive highways works will mean that we will see a lot less potholes in the future.”

MK Council say the key aims of the successful bid focussed around three main objectives which are:

• Prevention is better than cure – repair holes before they become worse and prevent other potholes forming

• Right first time – do the repairs correctly on the first occasion rather than temporary patch up jobs that need to be revisited in a few months.

• More information for the public – the council will inform and advise the public of where and how the pothole repairs are being carried out.

The council’s Highway team have already begun to implement these three objectives with a dedicated Pothole section on the council website and has bought in to the ‘ELGIN’ road works mapping system that visually shows all works taking place on the roads in Milton Keynes, this will also be showing the whereabouts and work programmes for road surfacing and pothole repairs from 27 April 2014.

In addition to the £471k of extra government funding, Milton Keynes Council has committed to spending an additional £50 million on the roads, redways and footpaths.

This will feature an extensive programme of road resurfacing and repairs over the next few months. Some of these works have already started across the city’s grid roads and roundabouts.

This resurfacing programme should contribute greatly to the reduction of potholes as if a surface has deteriorated over a larger area, potholes continue to reoccur.